Auryn’s entire body stills as he looks at her.
Fuck, that shouldn’t be possible. For starters, Olly’s a beta.
And second…he’s…
FuckingOlly.Smart as a whip in the lab but dumber than a brick with women.
“It’s okay,” he says, his voice oddly calm, but with a tinge of hoarseness. “Auryn.”
He doesn’t touch her, but the way he looks at her…
For the briefest moment there is a shimmer in his gaze that tells me maybe Olly’s not as defective as I thought, after all. Maybe…
“You are safe.” He says the words clearly, but I hear the depth in them. Most of the time when Olly talks, it’s fast, crisp. To the point.
I’ve never heard him talk toanyonelike this.
I glance at Gage and Diego who look just as confused, if not unsettled by the sight. Auryn whines in my arms.
“Olly,” Gage’s voice cuts through the weird tension, breaking the spell, and Olly turns to look at him. Without his sights set on her, Auryn is right back to her wiggling. “We need to move.”
Olly blinks as the rain starts to fall. “Right; safety is of the utmost importance.”
Gage brushes past me as I tighten my grip on Auryn. “This is going to be a lot easier on all of us, princess, if you just fucking relax, okay?” I tell her, and she snarls at me.
Olly follows behind Gage, turning to look at us, and she stills. My blood boils.
What the fuck? I growl in frustration as Olly nods at her. “It’s okay. You’ll be okay. Emmett is…” He looks me up and down judgingly, and if it weren’t for the omega in my arms, I would push him against the nearest tree and remind him who the fucking boss is here. “Strong,” he finishes, and I don’t know how to feel about such an admission, because from Olly’s mouth, it sounds like a bloody insult. But insult or not, it seems to have an effect on Auryn, so right now, I don’t argue with him.
Auryn doesn’t speak, just shivers, and then I watch Olly do the craziest thing.
He takes off his fucking coat, in the Goddamned rain, and covers her. The motion puts him far too close to Auryn for my liking, and this time I growl so loud it echoes in the canyon. His hand on the coat shakes, and he swallows hard, stepping back.
“There, all better,” he says, and then he takes off like a fucking bat out of hell. Auryn pulls the coat tight around her and doesn’t say a word as we trudge through the forest to the car.
I hold her close, wrapped up in Olly’s coat. Our clothes practically stick to us like a second skin, and I know he’s got to be freezing because I am, but our needs aren’t important right now. I look down at Auryn, at her dark eyes, at her flushed cheeks. Gage gets in the driver’s seat, Diego next to him, and Olly piles in next to us. I growl at him, warning him to keep his distance.
I don’t like him so close to her. My alpha feels threatened. By a fuckingbeta.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
“Don’t worry, Emmett, I won’t hurt her,” he says as he fastens his seatbelt.
“Stay the fuck over there, Olly,” I bite out.
He nods but says nothing in return. The ride back to the compound seems like it takes forever. Auryn passes out in my arms, likely from exhaustion.
When we hit the compound, Gage looks behind his seat directly at me.
“I’ll take her from here,” he says, and the growl that escapes me rattles the car.
“The fuck you will,” I say, feeling emboldened. I would never defy an order from Gage, but something about this omega is fucking with me.
With her in my arms, I’m another person altogether.
“You need to be assessed,” Olly says, his voice back to that clinical, calculating tone. “You are in no condition to—”
“I need tosootheher,” Gage growls back at Olly. Diego grabs his arm, pulling him back.
